Topeka  New restrictions on abortions in Kansas won first-round approval Wednesday in the Kansas House, including a proposed fetal pain law to block late-term procedures like one Nebraska enacted last year and a requirement for doctors to get parents’ consent before ending a minor’s pregnancy.

The House advanced two bills on separate voice votes — a fetal pain measure and another making numerous changes, many of which had been vetoed by former Democratic governors who supported abortion rights. Final votes on both were anticipated Thursday, and House members expected the bills to pass and go to the Senate.

Abortion opponents see the measures as tightening up the state’s laws on abortion enough to keep Kansas from regaining a past reputation as a center for late-term procedures, a distinction it had for years because of Dr. George Tiller’s clinic in Wichita, until he was shot to death in 2009.

“It moves us to absolutely the forefront with respect to how restrictive our laws would be with respect to late-term abortion,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lance Kinzer, an Olathe Republican and strong supporter of both measures.

But critics said the measures go further than restricting late-term procedures and argue they would endanger women’s health. Peter Brownlie, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, predicted the fetal pain proposal, based on science that’s disputed, would draw a court challenge.

“Women have abortions for many different reasons, and each person’s circumstances are different,” Brownlie said. “These must ultimately be private decisions made by women and their doctors, not political mandates.”

The Republican-controlled Legislature has had majorities in both chambers for much of the past decade inclined to impose new restrictions on abortion, particularly in the House. Bills were repeatedly vetoed by Democratic Govs. Mark Parkinson and Kathleen Sebelius, but GOP Gov. Sam Brownback, who was elected in November, is a strong abortion opponent and has called on lawmakers to create “a culture of life.”

As for the two bills, Mary Kay Culp, executive director of the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life, said, “It’s not everything all at once, but it’s progress.”

The bill containing the parental consent requirement also includes provisions to strengthen reporting requirements for doctors who perform late-term procedures and to allow lawsuits against them over potentially illegal abortions.

The proposed parental consent rule changes a law that now requires only that a doctor notify a parent or guardian before a minor’s abortion, something anti-abortion groups say is easy to circumvent.

The abortion provider would have to obtain the consent in writing from either both parents or a guardian, though it would allow the minor to go to court to get around the rule.

The fetal pain bill bans abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy, unless a woman or girl faces death or faces substantial and permanent damage to “a major bodily function,” rewriting the definition of that term so that it excludes mental health. The ban assumes that after the 21st week of pregnancy, the fetus is capable of feeling pain.

Current state law restricts abortions after the 21st week when a doctor determines the fetus to be viable. The bill rewrites the definition of viability, tying it to the fetal pain standard, leaving physicians no discretion to declare that a fetus at that stage isn’t viable.

The bill says there’s a growing body of research, especially in the last few years, to suggest fetuses can feel pain by the 20th week of pregnancy. Supporters say there are hundreds of studies showing it, and the research is backed up by the use of anesthesia in fetal surgeries.

“Our unborn children’s agony is no less just because we can’t hear their screams,” said Rep. John Rubin, a Shawnee Republican.

But the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said it knows of no legitimate evidence showing a fetus can experience pain. The group said certain hormones developing in the final trimester must be present for a fetus to feel pain.

And Rep. Barbara Bollier, a Mission Hills Republican and retired anesthesiologist, said the bill’s declaration about when a fetus can feel pain is false.

“It’s trying to establish something as a scientific fact that is not so,” she said.

I'm sorry to hear about your story, but that doesn't make the parental notification a bad thing. What if the rapist is an uncle or older acquaintance that convinces the girl to get an abortion and this is the way the parents find out what is going on? Most parents want what is best for their children.

There are limits on all our Constitutional rights, limits that have been determined to be reasonable over the course of the past 200 years. We maintain our freedom of speech even though we cannot yell "fire" in a crowded theater. Abortion has been defined as a right for a much shorter time. Whatever limits are imposed need to be well reasoned and enacted in good faith, not a punitive attempt at circumventing a woman's right to chooses. Those that choose the path of being punitive are wrong. Those that believe the right to choose is absolute are equally misguided.

As the issues of viability, fetal pain and others are studied more, I would hope everyone would keep an open mind to the possibility that with greater information, we can change our mind and adjust our public policy accordingly.